The prominent portrait painter Charles Loring Elliott was paid $1,404 for a commissioned full-length portrait of Matthew Vassar, now in Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. The sum included $1,200 for the portrait, $200 for a walnut frame and $4 for insurance.

Vassar noted in his diary a few days later: "Tuesday February 25, 1862, Meeting Trustees of V. Female College at Gregory House. After Meeting the Members came to my home and examined Elliotts Picture." Elizabeth Hazelton Haight, The Autobiography and Letters of Matthew Vassar.